SOURCE: Kohn, Martin F. “Love Story Is Good for a Laugh.” Detroit Free Press (24 August 2003): 6E.

In the following review, Kohn applauds Antoni Cimolino's 2003 Stratford Festival of Canada production of Love's Labour's Lost.

The quickest way to discern the trifling nature of Love's Labour's Lost is to hear its rhythms. Much of it is in rhyme, unlike the preponderance of Shakespeare's plays. In another departure from the Shakespearean norm, some dialogue is in anapestic tetrameter. (In case you missed class that day, think “'Twas the Night Before Christmas.”)

The play's plot, if you can call it such, centers upon four Spanish noblemen who swear to avoid women for three years and to devote themselves to studious pursuits. Enter four French noblewomen. (In case you missed class that day, it doesn't matter.)

Director Antoni Cimolino and company provide a surfeit of style to make up for a shortage of...